Tel Aviv

A blast of hot wind greeted me as I stepped off the bus with my family.  Tel Aviv turned out to be hotter than Jerusalem.

We had checked out of our apartment at 2:30pm and ridden the Light Rail to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station.  Bus 480 took us to Tel Aviv, and from there we rode another bus to the station closest to where we'd be staying.

The owner of our rented Tel Aviv apartment informed us that a leak had been found and that we'd had to stay in a different apartment for the time being.

I did not mind very much, particularly because the previous residents had left a box of chocolate-covered ice cream in the freezer, along with another box of chocolate and a can of date syrup...

In the evening we took a walk to the beach, which was only ten minutes away from our apartment.  The area was calm and still, and not a single person was in sight.  I lowered my hand into the water of the Mediterranean Sea and found it warmer than expected.  Straightening myself up, I gazed over the deep blue water and felt something penetrate my heart...

We arrived at our apartment again close to ten in the evening.

There were only three beds (one in the living room, two in two bedrooms) for my family of six to share.  My parents slept in the master room, my sisters in the other bedroom, my brother on the living room bed, and I made myself comfortable on the dining table:

The dining-table-converted-to-bed

When I woke up the next morning at 5:30 I smelled the "hotel smell" and for a few seconds thought I was in San Antonio for the National Bible Bee.  I became a little relieved when I realized it wasn't true.  But I plunged into deep thought about how travelling affected my studying for the competition...

I shook my thoughts away and got ready to go to the old city of Jaffa.